Home Ministry favours federal agency to fight terrorism

New Delhi, July 27 : The Home Ministry on Sunday spelt out the need for having a federal agency to deal with crimes having inter-state and cross border ramifications.

A meeting of Chief Ministers would be convened soon to have a close look at the security scenario.

According to the Home Ministry sources, efforts were being made to elicit views of all Chief Ministers, Members of Parliament and Members of Legislative Assemblies for evolving a consensus, but maintained many states were not very forthcoming.

They also said that in the aftermath of the two incidents in Bangalore and Ahmedabad, the Centre will again push for such an agency, in line with the suggestions made by various police reforms panels.

Moreover, the sources said the Centre was keen on amending the Central Industrial Security Forces (CISF) Act and introduce an amendment bill in the next session of parliament, so that IT setups could be guarded by the CISF, which was raised to protect only state-owned industrial establishments.